I bought this beautiful JM (Crimson Queen) 2 months ago. Due to some reasons... I guess clayish soil, too much watering and transplanting shock it de-leafed completely. Since it was not doing well in the front of the house I planted it back into the container it came in and placed it on my deck. Scrapped the bark at the bottom and it was green inside. It seemed to be doing well in the beginning as I saw some buds coming developing but then in a week I noticed that the buds stopped developing.....and then darkened in color. Today when I scrapped the bark I saw it is light brown (which was definitely 'healthy' green 2 months ago). Still no leaves nor buds. I am thinking since fall is approaching the buds may have stopped developing midway through to store energy but did not expect the bark to not be green as before. Would really appreciate any insight advise you would have on next steps from your experience. - What can I do to check if it has any life in it? - What do I have to do to save it from winter/snow in Ashburn, Virginia? - Would changing the soil in the container help (currently it has some tree shrub soil+native clayish soil+top soil) - What went wrong here? Thank you in advance, Raj
Hi Raj -- - You can check to see if the tree is alive by scraping along a stem with your thumbnail. If this reveals green tissue underneath, then the tree is alive. – It should be okay in a container through the winter in Virginia. You could bank up some mulch or straw around the edges of the container to maintain a more stable temperature. Freezing is okay, but you don't want the potting soil to warm up so that the plant emerges too early from winter dormancy. Placing it out of direct sunlight would be good. – A more free-draining potting mix would probably be better than a mix that contains native soil. - Alex guesses verticillium wilt, which is probably fatal. But it would helpful if you could post a picture.
thanks all for your help. i took the tree to the nursery and yes it was dead. they replaced the tree free of charge. so I am now restarting. I feel bad about the CQ though....it was indeed a beautiful tree !!
